Tag Archives: murder

The story plays out like a bad movie script, because we’ve unfortunately all heard it before:

Man meets woman and wants romantic and/or sexual relations with her.

Man discovers that woman is transgender.

Man decides to prove he’s a big, manly man and murders her in cold blood.

Man tries to escape justice by claiming “trans panic.”

It didn’t quite work for the “Man” in this case, as Marine Pfc. Joseph Pemberton was found guilty of homicide for strangling and drowning (in a toilet) transgender woman Jennifer Laude after they met in a hotel room for a presumed romantic encounter. While Laude’s family, loved ones, and friends did not receive the verdict they were hoping for (murder), nonetheless Pemberton was sentenced to 6 to 12 years in prison, and a fine of more than $130,000.

The case has also created a minor international incident, with the United States and the Philippines arguing over where Pemberton should serve his time, but really, that tempest in a teapot is hardly going to do anything to help the family of the murdered woman.

A transgender woman is dead tonight after repeatedly being run over behind a Kansas City church parking lot.

This is breaking news, but the basic details are known. Tamara Dominguez, a 36-year-old transgender woman, was killed in a church parking lot at Independence Avenue and Spruce at 3:00am Saturday night. After exiting a black Chevrolet Avalanche, the male driver hit her with his vehicle, then ran over her at least two more times.

Kansas City police say that they do not know if it is a hate crime, but it’s clear that some serious level of hate or rage has to be involved to repeatedly run someone over.

Just after dawn along Interstate 80, a passing motorist spotted something which made him pull over – the figure of a person, laying on the shoulder just a couple of feet from the pavement. He got out of his car for a closer look, and saw a still form, covered by a blue blanket and pillow. A small shaggy black dog stood watch silently by the figure.

Thus begins the story of the murder of Terri Williams Moore, a transsexual woman who was murdered in cold blood by her husband in what was likely an early case of “transsexual panic.” I’ve purchased an original article on her murder and the aftermath, and conducted a small amount of research to tell the story of a sister from not-so-long ago, who went through so many trials, and yet died trying to do nothing more than live an authentic life. You can read my write-up, and download the original article from 1976, at the link below.

Yesterday tens of thousands of transgender persons and their families, allies, and supporters attended Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) events around the world. Since the beginning of TDOR, the annual events have featured a reciting of the names of those who were murdered through the year. It’s a lengthy list each time, with more than 220 of them for this year’s event (I’m hedging, because some counting sites disagree on the exact number of murdered).

But hearing the names is an abstract exercise. We hear the names read out like a gazetteer of sadness and pain in this world, and we go home. This article (linked below) by the Advocate contains the stories of a small sample of those who fell this last year, removed from this world by the evil of mankind. Twenty-four women; about one-tenth of the fallen.

Please if you click on one post today, click on this one. Read a bit about these sisters and brothers of ours, and make their unintended sacrifice concrete within your heart.

Quite a lot of sad news here I’m afraid, so stop reading right now if you don’t want to read.

I have four articles to highlight here, and I think by far the most important one is the fact that there may be a serial killer of transgender women in Detroit. The first murder occurred sometime in November, 2013, when the body of a transgender woman was found burned beyond recognition and stuffed into a trash container. The second murder occurred on 15 August, 2014, when a second transgender woman was shot in the head just a block from the first murder scene. And since that time two other transgender women have been shot, with both surviving but seriously wounded – both of them shot within blocks of the two murders. I don’t have anything I can add, save that again, we need to exercise extreme vigilance when we are on the streets. Even in a generally transgender-friendly city like Kansas City, safety first, last, and always.

I wish I could give a more positive update on the investigation into the murder of transgender woman Islan Nettles. Unfortunately, New York City Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Viorst has only said they are still “pursuing leads” more than a year after Nettles was murdered by a group of men in a blatant hate crime. In the photograph above, we see Laverne Cox using her celebrity status to attempt to draw attention to the crime, but to no apparent avail.

This next story involves a woman who preyed upon the transgender community, but in a different way: by running a silicone “pumping” business. Which unfortunately led to the death of two transgender women, Marilyn Hale and Karima Gordon. Tracy Lynn Garner, herself a transgender woman, was convicted on 29 August, 2014 of the murder of Karima Gordon, and will be facing sentencing on 2 September, 2014. I’ve warned repeatedly of the dangers of pumping silicone, some of which isn’t even medical silicone but rather nothing more than window sealant, and this story is merely sad proof that you can indeed die from this.

The former story is a little unusual because in that case the transgender woman was the murderer. But my final story also features a transgender murderer, in this case Melissa Young, who stabbed a male acquaintance to death in his apartment when he rejected a gift of trainers (shoes) and a calendar. Young is appealing her conviction, claiming that the Archangel Michael had possessed her body, forcing her to kill an “unclean demon.” Young, who is on the right in the photograph above, apparently had a history of threatening people with knives, and is currently serving a 20-year sentence.

Three cases of crimes against transgender persons suddenly jumped to the surface of my news feed. We try here at Transas City not to focus too much on single crimes, for two reasons. First and foremost, many in the community have “tragedy fatigue,” in that they already fully know and have experienced hatred against themselves and our people, and they don’t need to keep seeing news reports of another dead transperson. Secondly, early news reports also carry with them a high level of speculation, “he-said-she-said,” and uncertainty. And outside of opinion pieces, we deal in as much hard fact as possible here at Transas City.

Our next story involves a 15 year-old transgender girl whose crime against humanity was that she was trying to ride on the subway in Washington, D.C. Having ridden on the Green Line myself, I can say it’s not really that seedy of a place to be, especially at 4:30pm. The story thus far:

Metro Police have arrested and charged 24-year-old Reginald Anthony Klaiber with bias-motivated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the stabbing. They apprehended Klaiber at the Fort Totten station as he was attempting to flee the scene. Officers also recovered a 3.5-inch folding knife.

Metro spokesman Dan Stessell says the girl was stabbed once in the back and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

…

Witnesses told Transit Police detectives that the suspect made bias-motivated remarks about the victim’s transgender status immediately prior to the assault. The charges against Klaiber include the possibility of enhanced penalties for hate/bias motivation.

I mean good grief, why? You just have to seriously, seriously question the utility of keeping a person in society who just walks up, taunts a transgender girl, then stabs her – in public, in front of multiple witnesses, in a heavily policed area. That’s stupid, evil, AND crazy.
The final news item we have for you is one we will hear about in this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance. Specifically, an arrest has been made in the Fort Meyers, Florida murder of transgender woman Eddie James Owens. Owens was apparently murdered, and then her body was burned to attempt to prevent identification. Apparently the victim knew her accused killer, and there was bad blood between them. The problem is, when you’re transgender having “bad blood” between you and someone else may very well result in your blood which is spilled.

This news item has been bumped around local news in the American Northwest, and it’s also appeared recently on several conservative blogs as “proof” that all transpeople, everywhere, are nutrageously nutty.

Transwoman Donna Perry, who is accused of being a serial killer of prostitutes, claims that she is not responsible for anything that Douglas, her “male persona,” may or may not have done. The unfortunate side effect of her outrageous claim is that she is attempting to throw the trans community under the metaphorical bus in order to make a gamble to avoid sentencing for three brutal murders.

Is this a surprise, or is it what we expect? I think it’s important at least once every few weeks to show how poorly transgender people are treated around the world. Not to pick on other countries, or point the finger of blame. No, we need to be aware of these events so we can see just how bad it could be here in the United States if we let down our vigilance.

While this article does not call the murder out as a “trans panic” killing, other reports I’ve seen online give conflicting reports. However, the disrespect shown to her by her own family is sobering and saddening. Washing her body in a male ceremony, refusing to acknowledge her gender, and refusing to let her own friends and community members at her funeral – and lying about her death. It’s shameful.

I’m taking some time with this post to talk on the deaths of three transgender women. Each was very different, each was tragic, and each was another dark page in the book of our shared experience.

First I want to highlight the murder of Deoni Jones, who 2 years ago was stabbed in her face while she was waiting at a bus stop in Washington, DC. For the crime of “existing while trans.”

Her murderer, Gary Niles Montgomery, has had two previous trials with no outcome for either side. Deoni’s family, friends, and community activists have apparently been trying to get the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia to treat them like human beings, especially the victim, and they claim that to date they have been unsuccessful. The Attorney’s Office claims the opposite. Whatever the case, the family has had to suffer for more than two years just to even get the murderer to trial, and wondering when if ever they will receive justice.

I decided to bring a little historical perspective to this update on the murder of Islan Nettles by mentioning another case, more than a decade prior, where a transwoman was murdered and the police are apparently unable or unwilling to do the right thing.

On December 22, 2002, transgender woman Nizah Morris was found naked in the street from the waist up, bleeding from a head wound. The last time any witnesses had seen her, she was climbing into a police car to receive a courtesy ride from Philadelphia police officer Elizabeth Skala. A summary of what happened afterwards can be found here.

Officer Skala testified that Morris asked to be dropped off at Chancellor St and S. Juniper St, two minutes distant driving from the bar and 45-minute walking distance from her home. One minute after being dropped off at 3:30am a motorist testified he called 911 reporting a woman she was laying on the street naked from the waist up, bleeding from her head.

The DA has refused to release the 911 records.

The entire thing is better explained at the link above, and screams “coverup” so loudly that you have to wonder WTF.

So flash forward 11 years, and we have the case of Islan Nettles, who was beaten to death on or about August 17, 2013 after she and a group of friends were attacked by a gang of eight men. After following them and taunting them with homophobic slurs, at least one man knocked Nettles to the ground and began a bit of the old ultra-violence – because that’s what we “subhumans” deserve, right? Ye-ah.

Nettles’ case quickly turned into a three-ring circus, with a friend of the defendant making a fake confession in the case, allegedly spurred on by the defendant’s mother. Even after these folks using the justice system like a plastic sex doll, the District Attorney’s office insists that they are “aggressively investigating” the case. The group Trans Women of Color of New York made this recent press release concerning the case:

It was revealed that no DNA evidence was collected from Paris Wilson at the scene of the crime, nor were witnesses rigorously questioned. Nor has it been explained why Simone Wilson, the suspect’s mother, was never held accountable for falsifying evidence when she persuaded a friend of her son to make a false confession which was later recanted. And perhaps most inexplicably, the D.A.’s office is claiming that all 10 surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the beating that lead to Islan Nettles’ death were broken.

It may seem minor, but in reality, this is a “wow” moment. Andrea Quintero was homeless and desperate when she left Colombia for Italy, in search of a more accepting society, and the potential for meeting a man who would be kind to her and love her. But in Rome she found nothing but pain, accumulating injuries from beatings on the train platform where she lived. On July 29, 2013, her body was found on that platform, the result of a brutal beating. On that same day, Pope Francis said five words about homosexuality: “Who am I to judge?”

Andrea’s body was recovered by charity workers who wanted to give her a Catholic funeral. A Jesuit Priest opened the doors of one of the most prominent Catholic churches in Rome, and then something special happened – throughout her funeral service, the priest acknowledged Andrea as “she.” Something which the Catholic Church has never done before.

Statistics are a funny thing, in that clusters of seemingly related events can occur, which could lead one to think there is a pattern or a particular influence.

That being said, two transwomen being murdered in two days stretches the laws of random chance just a bit, especially when we number less than 1 in 5,000 in America.

In the first case, Brittany Sturgis, age 22, had her life put to an end in what police say looks like a hate crime. Sturgis was sitting in her car outside a nightclub, apparently minding her own business, when someone shot her in the head, killing her instantly.

In the second case Betty Skinner, a 52-year-old disabled transwoman was found dead in her apartment. She died of lethal head injuries, and homicide, not robbery, appeared to be the motive.

Cleveland hasn’t had a great reputation as a safe place for transwomen – this last January Ce Ce Dove, a 20-year-old transwoman was stabbed 40 times by her date, who was enraged that the woman he was dating had a penis. Her body was thrown into a pond, and her killer was caught, convicted, and sentenced to 20 years with parole.

My friend Julie pointed me to this – it’s simply abominable that an attorney can make a statement like this and suffer no real consequences. But that’s the price of free speech.

One Rasheen Everett was facing 25 years to life for his sentencing after he was convicted of murdering Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar, a transsexual woman. So his attorney tried a tactic which Lionel Hutz would have been too embarrassed to attempt:

“A sentence of 25 years to life is an incredibly long period of time judge. Shouldn’t that be reserved for people who are guilty of killing certain classes of individuals?”

The judge, while sentencing Everett to 29 years in prison, scolded Defense, and stated:

“This court believes every human life in sacred,” he said. “It’s not easy living as a transgender, and I commend the family for supporting her.”

I’ve combined two stories of note here due to their topic being in a similar vein.

The first one is somewhat satisfying, to the extent possible when one of our sisters is murdered in cold blood. Lowlife scum Miguel Inostroz was sentenced to 112 to life for the brutal murder of transwoman Lucy Parkin. It does not appear that the crime was motivated by her being trans, but what’s noteworthy is that justice was done. In other words, in a justice system which is often biased against transpeople, the jury did the Right Thing.

Roe was crossing Garvey Avenue at Central Avenue (map) on the way to a friend’s house between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. when a uniformed El Monte police officer pulled up in a marked patrol car and demanded to know what she was doing, according to the civil complaint.

The officer ordered her to lean into the driver’s side window of the patrol car.

“Because she feared for her safety if she refused, (she) leaned forward and (the officer) groped her breasts,” the complaint says. “He then asked (her) if she was ‘a nasty she-male.’ (She) responded that she was transsexual.”

The officer then allegedly ordered her to walk into an alley behind businesses in the southeastern corner of the intersection, and into a secluded parking lot behind 10052 Garvey Avenue.

Once there, he ordered her to perform oral sex on him, the complaint says. After several minutes, he raped her on the trunk of his patrol car while calling her demeaning names.

The officer then allegedly threw his used condom on the ground and told the transgender woman to leave. After a few moments, she returned to retrieve the condom for use as evidence, according to the complaint.

Sickening if true. And it’s certainly not unheard of – according to Injustice at Every Turn, “Six percent (6%) reported physical assault and 2% reported sexual assault by police officers because they were transgender or gender non-conforming.”

I try not to post many of these articles. For one thing, they can seriously depress me, and can get me into a mode of thinking that we really still have so much further to go. For another, I try to post mainly positive articles which show transwomen succeeding. However, I never advocate ignoring the hate and the crimes committed on us, and two women murdered in one week has made me feel like yes, we need to stop and think about what it really means to be transgender.

Melony Smith, a transgender woman who press reports identify as Vanhxay Inthichack, was found dead inside a motel room last week in Baldwin Park, just east of Los Angeles, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. An autopsy revealed she had been beaten to death, prompting detectives to rule the case a homicide.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau confirmed it had taken Stephen Gonzales into custody on drug charges and was preparing to file murder charges against the 28-year-old from West Covina.

A 31-year-old transgender woman, identified in media reports as Shaun Hartley, was found dead inside an abandoned house in Baton Rouge Thursday. The local coroner declared that Hartley had died as a result of blunt trauma to the head, neck, and torso.